Act 2: Upheaval VI - Celebration and Departure

"I wish I could have helped you with that..." Fluffle laments, his head low.

Nadzieja doesn't hesitate and pats the fairy on the back to comfort him, which seems to work to a certain degree judging by the smile he gives her.

"So let's stop it," she declares. "Did you learn anything new that might help with that?"

"Back at Edward's base we had uncovered two pieces of paper. One written from Wanda to Edward, that we've already shown you. We hedged our bets and came here, assuming Edward would take this one to be more urgent - little did we know he was here already."

"The other mentions a plot to murder the duchess of Luxus at the ball she's soon hosting. She's recently been confirmed as a Green Mage. We're hoping to get back on the trail there, and hopefully come up with some way to save the duchess in the meantime."

"...The duchess?" Nadzieja repeats. She needs a moment to process this piece of information. "So Edward isn't trying to assume control of Emerald?"

"Oh, he is. We just don't know how murdering her fits into the greater plan."

"They probably see this as something they need to address, and now have an opening to do so. I believe this was a report from an operative of his; i'm not sure he's directly involved. They've probably been taking out compromised rulers for a while now."

He pulls out the letter and hands it to her - "Here."

"Yeah, I remember Wanda mentioning Lorinth... and now Emerald?" She takes the letter from Mihai, reads it, and then rereads it. "I'm... I kind of don't know what to say right now. I never thought I'd be dealing with schemes and conspiracies like these."

She sighs and massages her temples with her hand.

Steve tries to think who the king of Emerald is. Knowledge (Politics): 20 untrained

"Yes. His name is Felix Tibur I. From what I've heard, he's been consolidating his power for the last few years since he took the throne. Until his father's death, he was also—" She suddenly stops herself, and her mouth drops for an instant. "...He was also known as an infamous merrymaker until some scandal happened. He then disappeared from the court for a couple of years until his father died, and he then came back a changed man."

Steve:

"Myr, Lorinth, Emerald... Lofell is too decentralized for now, but that's changing. And whoever wears our bodies could push for access to Prime Councilor Knight."

"But they already have one of us: Fedler. If that was the plan she'd be enough to get a meeting, right?"

Konrad:

"A meeting?" Nadzieja repeats. "With who exactly?"

"Prime Councelor Knight, from the Feathers. He gave us medals once after a job we did."

She finally understands what the adventurers were getting at. "I see," she says.

Konrad weighs this in his mind. Will they have to rescue Fedler in the Free Feathers and save the Prime Councilor, or leave her to potentially be changed forever, and save the Duchess instead?

"If that's the case, then we're at another fork in the road. Edward or Stefan still has Breeze. Hopefully, our handler, and whomever he informed about the situation, can prevent access to the councilor for now and maybe even help or detain Fedler, if she's in the Free Feathers. Without a fairy like Breeze, Fedler has no chance of recovery."

"It's a chance against a wild guess. No point considering it. Rather, it's time i talked about what we saw when we were under."

"Okay, Mihai, but before you start, I'm having Doodad take a letter to Zelk. Why don't I add our fears in so she can keep an eye on Knight while we do our thing? He should be here soon."

"Sure. Though it really is only a guess at this point."

"I know, but if we are right, maybe Zelk can keep him from getting orbed." He pulls out the letter and gets to work adding in a PPPPPS about it on the back of the letter.

Fluffle lands next to Steve to offer his help if he needs it.

"Where do i even start..." - he thinks for a moment before turning to Nadzieija - "Yesterday morning when we went to tell Wanda about Duma, something happened we weren't expecting. I'm positive it was the Orbs, but she changed into a man we'd never seen before, right in front of our eyes. Wanda seemed completely unaware of this, but we didn't have a name to go with the face until later, when we dreamt the 17th Squad's debriefing after the mission to Shadowstep."

"The squad was led in secret to a room where the same man awaited them - Captain Edward Fox, of the Emperor's personal guard. They exchanged a few words, before Edward made way for Keiran Hammerfist himself to enter the room. They talked about their options for a bit, arriving at more or less the same conclusion we would today, except for a trump card up their sleeve they hadn't known they had until then."

"Some time prior, the Emperor had made some time to listen to a researcher named Finley Howe, on a concern he had regarding a resurgence of the Flood, that would kill what was left of us on the islands when it ever came to pass. Farfetched as it was, the Emperor had given it enough merit to allow Howe to start working on a countermeasure. What he created was called the Sphere - a massive shield of Raw Magic that would envelop the entire Archipelago and keep the water out when the time came. The unfortunate side effect would be that it would absorb and nullify all Magic inside the bubble itself, but it turned out to be exactly what they needed right then. The main problem turned out to be that Howe was visiting with his family in Emerald at he time, and the Kingdom had suddenly decided to launch an unscheduled military drill - something that might have been unexpected but for a piece of information the Emperor was privy to: King Axon was a Green Mage."

"The 17th Squad then made their way in secret to Emerald, to retrieve Howe. Along the way is when they learned from Jacob how the Enemy think, to an extent. They seem to share a collective fear of Humanity, for some reason, and seeing as how all their minds are interconnected, that leaves for very little in the way of independent thought, except for one: A Fire Elemental that had disconnected itself from the Hive Mind in order to study Human thought and behavior. The only one among them that was given a name - they call it the Mimic. A year ago, i think we've met it during our first job together. It had something that wasn't consistent with plain old fear of an entire race of people. It..."

Mihai searches for the right words,

"...was malicious. Arrogant. Sadistic, even. After two hundred years of learning - that going by how Jacob talked about it, seemed to have consisted of a lot of torturing of Humans and Fairies - it's probably risen to some sort of rule over the rest of them. I believe the entire Collective follows it's lead."

Nadzieja stares at Mihai with her mouth agape. Her mind is already working as fast as it can to process these multiple revelations, and it leaves her speechless for quite a long moment. Fluffle has stopped helping Steve with the letter, distracted by the riveting tale Mihai just told the First of Myr.

"Give—give me a few minutes," she says.

And she then starts asking questions about everything she just learned, just so she can hear it again but with more details this time. Each party members contribute to the discussion, sharing their personal insights on these events that happened two centuries ago, the fairies' origin, and the connection with the Coins.

"...This is fucking unbelievable," the young monk mutters in Wytrwaly.

Fluffle however is more puzzled by the revelation concerning the origin of his people, the fairies.

"So we were all born from an Elemental and a human...?" he asks. "But it didn't work the first time. So why do it again...?"

He rubs his chin with his hand to consider this new perspective on his existence. He doesn't seem overwhelmed, merely curious. As for Nadzieja, she's now pouring herself another cup of tea.

"Yeah. That's what i've been mulling over too. No matter how you look at it, all the Fairies popping up unchecked are definitely a thorn in the Enemy's side. Yet it doesn't happen without some of them stepping forward and doing it. What's more, the Coins have been going out of their way to nurture them, and it can't be all about Jacob feeling sentimental. There has to be a reason to commit the resources they've been putting forth."